Creepshow Review — Penny Dreadfuls

When it comes to horror franchises, Creepshow is something of a celebrity. The comic book series turned television show turned movie has built a legacy of horror, often known as a more campy, albeit still creepy, source of scares. I’ve been a huge fan of the series for as long as I can remember, so I jumped at the chance to try the new Creepshow game, delighted to experience new terrors in a new interactive format.

The game combines the typical Creepshow anthology format with the interactive story gameplay made famous by Telltale’s series of games. You play through an overarching story connected by several smaller, Creepshow-sized scares, wherein a small group of teenagers explores the wreck of a burnt-down mall, searching for clues related to the tragic death of our protagonist’s father. Along the way, he discovers an old fortune-telling machine inhabited by a mysterious man who demands to be read stories, but not just any stories… a series of Creepshows.

These Creepshows play as small, interactive stories that break up the main plot. Each one is a self-contained horror story, written in the classic Creepshow style, with horrifying endings and truly ghoulish monsters within.

These stories are, by far, the best part of the game. Specifically, delving into the twisted, unabashedly corny stories- the one where a corpse is puppeted by a giant beetle, a particular favorite of mine- is the highlight of the game. Getting to see some gorgeous Creepshow art at the beginning and end of each comic is an extra special treat that fans of the printed material will especially enjoy.

While the stories are great, most of the punch comes from the reveal and ending of each one. Between those segments, where the actual gameplay happens, the game can unfortunately be pretty boring. There is a lot of “walking simulator” style gameplay where you go from point to point, interact with something, and watch the story unfold. There is very little to do, and when the game does try to give you something to interact with, it is often a small, not-very-fun or exciting mini-game that is over as quickly as it starts.

This would be fine if the story itself were more engaging. While I love the concepts and certain moments of the stories featured in Creepshow, they unfortunately suffer during the buildup, creating very cool endings that come only after long, boring beginnings and middles.

Part of this is because the game feels the need to be a game, and the pursuit of giving the player “something to do” is wasted, extending stories with gameplay segments where you don’t even really do anything. What’s worse is that the narrative segments between them, small cutscenes that break up the gameplay, are often ruined by incredibly stilted animation and odd expressions that simply do not sell the scenes they are trying to sell. The character models work great in still shots, but when asked to animate, they often move in slow, awkward, small movements, and they hardly express anything.

While these elements take away from the stories, they are still fun stories, and I enjoyed each one I got to play. Unfortunately, I felt as though the game was way too short, and we simply didn’t get enough stories to enjoy along the way. Frankly, I think the game’s entire narrative could be done away with, and Creepshow could have, and probably should have been, a series of small interactive horror comics that released episodically. I wouldn’t mind paying $2 to $5 every few weeks for a new, Telltale-style horror short, assuming that the gameplay was more interactive and the animation was up to par with the titles the game is inspired by.

I personally choose to believe that Creepshow is a proof of concept, and something akin to what I just described will come soon. If not, then here is my official invitation for DreadXP to steal my idea. Some credit would be nice, but I truly believe what I just described would not only be a better game, but fits the legacy of Creepshow perfectly.

Overall, Creepshow is not a terrible game. It lives up to the franchise’s legacy with some truly awesome horror shorts, incredible art sprinkled throughout, and an overall fun time. It is, however, only fun once, with little to no replayability, and hardly anything to do on your first playthrough. Boring interactable segments and stilted, rough animation take away from the game’s strengths: its ghoulishly fun horror stories.

For just $15, I would say the game is a good time for horror fans, but they might be disappointed to find there is very little to do and the overall experience is rather short. With just two Creepshows to enjoy, I can only hope the franchise returns with a better anthology format like the one I described before. In the meantime, this still serves as an okay, if not perfect, title that horror fans will enjoy.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a Steam code for this PC review of Creepshow. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Creepshow is available on Steam.